Plaza Vieja (Old Square)

Considering
the decision taken by the keeper of the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, in
the first half of 16th century, to use the Parade Ground for military
practices, the neighbors of the town insisted to the town council on the
need to create a new public square for their amusement.

But the business deals required to acquire the lots needed to create
the aforementioned square didn’t do well because of the high prices.
It wasn’t until 1587 that at a town council meeting it was decided
to use as a public square the area behind the Convento de San Francisco,
which was being built at the time. The new square was known as Plaza Nueva
(New Square) as opposed to the Plaza de Armas or Plaza Vieja (Old square).
Well into the 18th century it came to be called the Plaza Vieja, as opposed
to the Nueva Plaza del Cristo.

The
development of the Cuban architectural style in the 18th century can be
appreciated on the houses surrounding the plaza. These houses, some of
them dating back to the 17th century, were two stories high, had lofty
ceilings and wooden balconies. They also had ample porches to temper the
hot rainy weather and wide corridors closed with blinds, on top of which
there were typical crystal arches that became one of the most distinctive
elements of the colonial architecture. Many of these crystal arches are
still very well kept.

Among the most remarkable houses there is one that used to belong to
José Martín Félix de Arrate y Acosta, one of the
first three historians of Havana City (1687-1766) and one formerly owned
by Gabriel Beltrán de Santa Cruz y Aranda, Count of San Juan de
Jaruco, where the famous Countess of Merlin was born years later. On the
side of the Plaza facing east, Laureano Torres de Ayala, Marquis of Casa-Torres
and captain general, built his house during the first decade of the 18th
century.

Around
1796 a fountain was erected at the plaza. In it, a bowl upon an attic
column two meters high, decorated with the city and the count arms stood
out. In 1835, during Miguel de Tacón’s administration, the
Cristina Market, a four sided irregular parallelogram with sixty market
stalls was built in honor of the Spanish Queen.